Soap bars are back in favour and if you’re looking for an option that is sustainable and utilises waste products, Hog & Tallow soaps should be on your radar.
Handmade in England, Hog & Tallow create sustainable soaps using locally sourced West Country ingredients including tallow, rapeseed oil and foraged botanicals.
Tallow is a substance made from animal fat that is commonly used in the making of soap and candles. Tallow contains skin nourishing ingredients that are highly compatible with the skin. It is easily absorbed into the, improves the protective barrier function of the skin, prevents moisture loss and regenerate the appearance of healthy-looking skin.
Low-waste from start to finish, Hog & Tallow came into being in 2015 when the founders were thinking of what to do with the excess fat from the rare breed pigs on their smallholding farm. The idea morphed into soaps when they realised they could also use good quality waste products from local cottage industries, as well as foraged botanicals.
That said, the Hog & Tallow soap range are as much works of art as they are great examples of how creative you can be with waste products. Their soaps contain 100% natural ingredients with no nasties or palm oil.
Given the nature of the process and the availability of waste products, the Hog & Tallow soap range is small but varied nonetheless. Old Spot is a tallow soap made with charcoal powder and tea tree oil, topped with beautiful dried petals. Pig in the Bath is a handmade tallow soap with the addition of comfrey-infused British rapeseed oil, lavender oil and waste ingredients such as ale, milk and cider, which is then finished with dried lavender petals.
Hog & Tallow said: “We researched using lard and tallow in traditional soap making and began the process of experimenting with ingredients and recipes.
“The products we came up with use predominantly British local ingredients and use as much local waste and by-products as possible creating a sustainable product that is environmentally friendly and gurt lush to use.
“We wanted to use fats that are not only great for the skin but local to us and not flown in from around the world resulting in a soap with a very small carbon footprint! We only use herbs and plants that we forage ourselves so we know that they are organic or from trusted gardens.”
Hog & Tallow soaps are available online via Etsy
Rosa Medea is Life & Soul Magazine’s Chief. She writes about lifestyle including sustainable and green living. She also offers content services to businesses and individuals at Rosamedea.com
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